BioShock Infinite Review

Editor’s Note: This objective review contains a spoiler for an event that occurs a few hours in to BioShock Infinite. To read our spoiler-free objective review of BioShock Infinite, click here.

BioShock Infinite is a first person shooter set in 1912 in which the player controls Booker DeWitt, a man who is attempting to repay the debt the has accumulated by visiting a flying city called Columbia and retrieving a woman who is there. In order to accomplish his objective, Booker must fight his way through police officers and others, like people who can turn into crows and back into people indefinitely until Booker kills them.

BioShock Infinite features thirteen weapons, each of which can be upgraded and any two of which can be carried at one time, fourteen enemy types, eleven levels, some of which are visited multiple times, four kinds of equippable gear, and eight vigors, which are special powers that Booker can use to create shields, attack an enemy with crows, shock enemies with electricity, and cause vending machines to spew out coins.

All but three of the weapons in BioShock Infinite fire bullets. The player can upgrade their health, shield, or salt capacity each time they find an infusion bottle. The player’s shield depletes as the player is shot and recharges when the player is not shot for a period of time. The player’s salt is used to activate vigors. Salt and health can be refilled by finding consumable items like hot dogs and coffee in locations like trash cans and wall safes. The player can sometimes order a woman to open doors for Booker.

The graphics in BioShock Infinite are in a realistic style, with the exception of the woman Booker aims to retrieve, Elizabeth, who has eyes that are larger than actual eyes. The graphics depict Columbia, some of its inhabitants, faces that have been ripped apart by the player’s melee weapon, and vending machines that sell guns. The sounds in BioShock Infinite include conversations that occur between characters, gunshots, and the sounds of eating and drinking when the player simultaneously consumes multiple food items. BioShock Infinite features a soundtrack with orchestral music and also various songs from periods later than 1912 in the style of 1912 music.

In 1857, George Fitzhugh argued that slavery should not be abolished in the United States. Writing of what would happen if society were to abolish slavery, he argued that “the riots, mobs, famines, heresies, superstitions, infidelities, and revolutions of free society prove that this competition, antagonism, rivalry, war, and anarchy are begotten by such society, without any hopes of settlement or permanent peace, order, subordination, faith, or contentment.” In BioShock Infinite, when slavery is abolished in Columbia, this leads to riots, mobs, famines, competition, antagonism, rivalry, war, and anarchy, without any hopes of settlement or permanent peace, order, subordination, faith, or contentment.